Temperature control systems, such as multi-zone HVAC systems (hereinafter ‘HVAC system’) include one or more components to condition air that enters the system and drive the conditioned air through supply ducts to multiple zones within a building. Each supply duct includes zone dampers that may be adjusted to control a flow of the conditioned air into each zone to achieve a desired temperature within the zone. Some zone dampers, such as modulating zone dampers, may include intermediate positions between a fully open position and a fully closed position such that the zone dampers can be incrementally closed to achieve a desired flow of the conditioned air in a zone. The number of available intermediate positions may vary based on a desired granularity in controlling the flow of the conditioned air to the zone.
Conventional HVAC systems operate under the assumption that the relationship between a change in the damper positions of the zone dampers of the HVAC system and the volume of conditioned air flowing through the zone dampers is a linear relationship. The linear relationship between the flow of the conditioned air (hereinafter ‘airflow’) with each change in damper position of the zone damper is desired for obtaining the best performance in the HVAC system. However, typically, most zone dampers exhibit nonlinear behavior of airflow with the change in damper positions of the zone damper, which in turn causes rough and uneven changes in temperature and airflow, excess airflow noise, and/or inadequate conditioning of the zone. The nonlinear behavior of the airflow may also cause the HVAC system to suffer from unexpected perturbations and even go out of control.
In light of the above mentioned shortcomings of conventional HVAC systems, zone dampers that exhibit a linear behavior of airflow through the zone dampers for each damper position are described herein. It is noted that this background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present disclosure. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present disclosure.